The tricenarian woman was sweating worse than an athlete on a run, as she continuously scratched her wrist with her nails. Khusi felt her insides twisting as the skin on the young woman's wrist started turning red.
"You don't have to be afraid of anything, okay? We will just ask the questions and you give us the answers.. No need to be scared of him," A female cop spoke softly to Diyasha, who was a nervous wreck.
"I don't know much ... "
The female officer huffed in annoyance at the same line Diyasha had been uttering since the minute the inquiry had started.
"Okay! Listen here woman! I have been very patient ... " Abhay was about to snap at her when Khusi stroked his chest to stop him from lunging at Diyasha. His anger vanished, and Abhay's eyes stilled on Khusi. That woman was already scared shirtless. She couldn't handle another raging armed officer charging her.
"Diyasha, you know me right?" Khusi asked, sitting beside Diyasha, who was Nitin Joshi's maternal cousin.
She nodded, her eyes down.
"Who am I?"
"David's class teacher."
"Not only that. I'm also someone who is trying to make David's life a little better. I know you know what he faces in the house daily, don't you?" At Khusi's question, tears swarmed in Diyasha's eyes, and she quietly nodded.
"Don't you want to help your nephew live a better life. A life where he wouldn't have to be scared in his home?"
"I do ... but, I ... I am scared," Diyasha choked, her face turning red with the strain in her throat.
"Of what?" Khusi asked. All other officers watched with wonder as Khusi was able to make the woman, whom everyone else thought was practically mum, speak.
"I am scared that Nitin wouldn't let me be near David or take care of him, if I disclose anything. And I can't lose David, not after losing my ba ... " Diyasha couldn't continue as her emotions choked her, making her gulp the lump down painfully.
"Don't worry about it. Nobody would know that you helped. And look at the brighter picture. David will finally be free of his abusive father and alcoholic mother."
Abhay already had gathered enough proof on how Nitin beat David black and blue almost daily, to shimmer his frustration. His mother hadn't ever cared, appearing in mid video, in half drunk state, only to laugh hysterically at Nitin who would either be dragging a crying David up and down their staircase or slapping him.
But it wasn't enough to proof Nitin guilty on charge of child abuse or molestation. He had powerful connections and had contacts with influential people. They needed an alibi. Someone who could verify the allegations. Diyasha could be the witness because she lived there 24X7.
David needed better parents and a safe home.
In the end they couldn't make Diyasha agree to help them. She wanted to, because she loved David like her own child, but her fear for Nitin was higher than her urge to help David.
● ● ●
Sweat glided down her temples as Khusi tossed and turned in the bed, the blanket encased around her body, as a heavy feeling in the stomach kept her awake all throughout the night.
Heaving a deep sigh, she snapped open her eyes and sat up, old memories appearing behind her head.
Her school days, Renuka Mukherjee who always used to wait for her daughter to return from either work or classes to feed her, her father dropping her off to coaching classes. It had been almost a year since she had talked to them, the last time when her mother blamed her for Bhaskar's infidelity and her father, when he tried to fix her broken marriage.
YOU ARE READING
Not Her
Romantikk"I don't want to become a mother." This line is a taboo for women in some parts of the world, and so was for Khusi Mukherjee. At the age of 25, independent and single, she wanted to live her life according to her rules. But everything changed when...
